A date has been set for Kimi Raikkonen's early start to his 2012 testing programme.
The rest of this year's field will have to wait until official group testing kicks off at Jerez in early February....

A date has been set for Kimi Raikkonen's early start to his 2012 testing programme.

The rest of this year's field will have to wait until official group testing kicks off at Jerez in early February.

But 2007 world champion Raikkonen, who is returning to F1 after a two-year stint in world rallying, revealed just before Christmas that February is a "long wait" for his first lap in a single seater since 2009.

"I should be able to jump into a two year old F1 car in January," he said.

The Finn was referring to a testing rules loophole that allows some running in older machines with non-competitive tyres.

Now called Lotus, the Enstone based team confirmed this week that Raikkonen, 32, will test its 2010 Renault R30 car at Spain's permanent Valencia circuit.

The two-day test, at the wheel of the car that in 2010 was painted yellow and raced by Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov, will begin on Monday 23 January.